As the doors opened for them, she noted the humanoid standing to one side of the Matriarch's throne. Reva approached and bowed formally. "Matriarch, you sent for me?"

The visitor was an Enjel, his midnight wings flared out behind him, matching the silken hair flowing from his forehead. His eyes were the same bright onyx as the K'ket, but his skin matched hers in chalky appearance.

"Yes, Nanny Reva. This Enjel has come forward to purchase you."

"For what purpose, Matriarch?" The glare she gave the winged man should have given him the hint that she was not up for any fun and games.

"As a breeding partner. He says you have complimentary genetics with his kind and he has been seeking one such as you for some time." The enormous Matriarch clacked her front claws delicately. "I have agreed."

"Pardon, Matriarch?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I thought I had served the Roci family well?"

"You have, Nanny, but it was a very large amount of money." The oversized insect cackled and her stinger came shooting forward to the spot where the Enjel had been standing.

He wasn't there any longer. He was behind Reva, winding his arms around her waist.

"You have received payment, Matriarch. Attempting to kill me was inhospitable."

"You are correct. I was just trying to see if I could keep both my Nanny and the money. She is quite talented, you know. I am sure you will be happy together." Retracting her tail from the floor, the Matriarch settled back on her hot rock. " Be gone, before I change my mind."

"Farewell, Matriarch. Lovely doing business with you." The Enjel bowed formally and bent his legs.

It took all of Reva's self-control not to scream as he launched them into the air and took them out the window. With her talent for giving orders that had to be followed by all within earshot, she carefully did not follow her instinct to yell let me down. With the height at which they were flying, it would have been fatal.

She kept quiet. The rush of air past her face felt surprisingly soft, and at this height, she could not taste the insects that populated this world. It was refreshing. His wings beat steadily, keeping them aloft and transporting them to the spaceport on the far side of the city. A trip that took hours on foot, was accomplished in fifteen minutes.

When her new owner landed in the open-air spaceport, he placed her gently on her feet and took her hand in his own.

"Come with me, Reva. The faster we get off this planet, the safer you will be."

"What? What do you mean?" She didn't dig in her heels, but she wasn't following him with the enthusiasm he apparently wanted, so he swung her into his arms and carried her into the shuttle.

"Strap in and I will tell you. But I do warn you that your orders won't have quite the effect you anticipate, so I would avoid using them until we are off this world." He dropped her in the co-pilot's seat and took his own seat in the specially made chair. It accommodated his wings nicely, but offered back support.

He ran through pre-flight checks in seconds.

Reva could only sit, bemused. This was not what she had experienced the last three times she had been sold. Those eager hands had caused her no end of stress. Her talent had bloomed by then and had kept her from their advances, but they felt a certain amount of uneasiness around her that had sent her back to the block. "Where are we going?"

He finished the checks, got clearance and lifted off before he answered. "We have been summoned to Sadril. They are evacuating due to a problem with their sun, and as members of the Sector Guard, we are going in to help with the evacuation."

That shocked her. She was the slave of the guard? "Sector Guard? You are a Guard?"

"We both are. The minute you crossed that threshold, Reva the slave ceased to exist. You are now a full citizen of the Alliance with the rights and freedoms included. Of course, if you try your position in the guard out and find it not to your liking, you can find employment elsewhere. We are always looking for support staff on Morganti." Most of his speech was said through clenched teeth as he fought the helm for control.

"Would you like some help with that? I am fully checked out on this style of shuttle." The offer came from the part of her that feared he would shake the ship apart.

"If you can help with the attitude, I would be most grateful." His teeth were still tight. He flipped a toggle to activate the co-pilot's controls.

Reva leaned forward to grip the controls as he relaxed. She smoothed their ascent and gently guided them out of the atmosphere. She brought them up and headed them to the slingshot point off the nearest moon, then turned to look at him.

His black eyes sparkled in the starlight. "That was well done, but I knew it would be."

She snorted in disbelief. "How could you have known I could fly?"

"Well, you can tell I can fly just by looking at me." He smiled at her surprised laughter. "Let me set the coordinates for our mission and then we can have some lunch and discuss how we came to be in this shuttle together." He competently entered their destination and set the computer for maximum speed. "Okay. That's taken care of that. Let's have a little talk now."

Reva has spent her life in servitude, her commanding voice her largest asset. When an Enjel swoops her off and away from her life as a nanny, she has a choice. Blinding and unfocused freedom, or life as a Sector Guard. Seer is her companion, and he wants to move up to lover, but as Order becomes comfortable with her new job, she has to think things through. She has to face her lack of education, social skills and romantic entanglements, and she has to do it fast before her Enjel loses patience.